Lafora and Trétiakoff: the naming of the inclusion bodies discovered by Lewy

Abstract

Fritz Heinrich Jakob Lewy described, for the first time, in 1912, novel peculiar inclusions in neurons of certain brain nuclei in patients with Paralysis agitans, and compared his finding to the amyloid bodies described by Lafora one year before. Gonzalo Rodriguez Lafora studied one patient with Paralysis agitans, in 1913, and recognized, described, and depicted structures identical to those previously reported by Lewy. He was the first to acknowledge Lewy's finding, and also the first to name such inclusions after the discoverer - cuerpos intracelulares de Lewy (Lewy bodies). Konstantin Nikolaevich Trétiakoff named the inclusions he found in neurons of the substantia nigra of patients with Parkinson's disease as corps de Lewy (Lewy bodies), in 1919. Trétiakoff has unanimously received the credit for the eponym. However, Lafora's earlier description should make him deserving of the authorship of the eponym.